Newcastle v Wolves: Premier League – live! | Football

49 min: We have a corner! The first of the night. It’s won by Wolves, and wasted by them too.

48 min: Saint-Maximin bursts into the final third, but the resulting cross is a tame one. Newcastle come again, get another cross in – same result.

46 min: Wolves win a free kick in their own half, launch the ball forward for once – and send it straight out.

They’re replaying the goal that wasn’t. It was Guimaraes who was ruled offside, in the inside-right channel, as Almiron (I think) slipped him a cool backheel. Guimaraes’ neat cross bobbled off a defender and fell kindly for Wood, who did well to hook the ball in from a horizontal position. But the VAR wasn’t wrong: it was offside, narrowly but clearly.

Guimaraes collects a consolation prize as Jamie Carragher says he’s been the best player on the field. For me, Newcastle have done well as a team, outplaying a side seven places above them with the simple desire to win the ball and propel it forwards.

The free kick, taken by Schar himself, goes into the wall, which rather sums up the half. Newcastle have passed purposefully and shot poorly; Wolves have passed sideways and shot hardly at all. Things can only get better.

45+3 min: The half threatens to end as it began, with Wolves playing comfy passes in their own half, but then Schar presses high and wins a free kick.

45 min: There will be three added minutes. It could have been more, but the ref may be a little bored.

44 min: Almiron bursts into the box but … you can guess the rest. Then Wolves go up the other end as Otto plays a lovely switch to Hwang, but … you get the picture.

“Evening Tim,” says Stephen Carr. “This isn’t a great watch is it? The most notable moment was watching Jonjo Shelvey running. It was like watching a bag a treacle fall down a flight of stairs.”

42 min: Newcastle win a free kick 35 yards out. Targett sends it onto the head of Wood, who gets a flick-on, but there’s nobody busting a gut to get on the end of it.

39 min: Luke Cundle, in the Wolves midfield, is buzzing around like Emil Smith Rowe, with his socks down – but playing it very safe with the ball.

38 min: Another fine move from Newcastle as Targett and Joelinton exchange classy passes down the left. They’re going to kick themselves if they don’t make all this pressure tell.

35 min: It’s been a game of two dimensions – Wolves playing horizontally, Newcastle vertically.

32 min: “Backwards, sidewards, that’s what I’m seeing,” says a commentator, about Wolves. That’s what I’m seeing too.

30 min: A Sky caption informs us that Newcastle have played 14 games against teams in the top half of the table and won not one of them. The questions is, does it count if a top-half team play so cautiously that they might as well be in the bottom half?

28 min: Newcastle, spurred by Krafth on the right, string together a lovely sequence of first-time passes. When the music stops, the parcel is in the hands of Saint-Maximin, whose shot is a tame one, curling wide.

26 min: The non-goal stirs Wolves into action, sending them upfield, where Jonny has their first shot of the night – over the bar.

The ref is sent to the monitor, and we all know what that means.

It’s pinball in the box, and Chris Wood is on the floor – but putting the ball in the net! The VAR is looking at it for offside, not against Wood…

21 min: Two more of those long balls from Newcastle – one to Saint-Maximin, the other to Almiron – and you’ve guessed it, no end product.

17 min: Krafth, at right-back, is doing a fine impression of Kieran Trippier. He bustles into the box and delivers a low cross, but again there’s no shot to show for it.

15 min: Newcastle make it into the box with a long curling ball from Shelvey to Wood, but they can’t make anything of it. So far, they’ve been all possession and no trousers.

13 min: Another man down! It’s Joao Moutinho, who gets a boot in the armpit. He seems to be OK.

11 min: Fabio Silva does well to win a 50-50 on the halfway line, and it feels as if Wolves are going to spring forward, but the next pass is a sloppy one, straight out of play.

Fraser is down again and he’s walking off, to be replaced by Miguel Almiron.

9 min: Ryan Fraser goes down with an injury off the ball and gets some attention from the physio. To my untrained eye, it looks like a hamstring.

8 min: Newcastle are getting more of the ball now, with Wolves sitting back, waiting for the moment to counter. When Newcastle win a free kick and bunt the ball into the box, Wolves clear comfortably.

6 min: José Sá is rudely awakened by a long diagonal cross from Matt Targett and a lung-busting run from Chris Wood. Sa greets the ball with a punch, and it’s a very punchy one.

4 min: Wolves’ turn to press as Shelvey dawdles in midfield. Their first attack ends with a long ball that sails out for a goal kick.

2 min: Wolves have most of the early possession, but they hardly get out of their own half as Newcastle press.

As Hey Jude rings out, a camera goes into the tunnel. The guy who catches the eye is José Sá – leaning against the wall, so relaxed that he’s almost asleep.

Look away now if you’re saving England’s World Cup qualifier in North Macedonia for later. Spoiler alert: the Lionesses are tucking in. Follow our MBM here with Sarah Riddell.

Wolves, by the way, also have to play the big two. Their fixture list is much like Newcastle’s, except with one game fewer, and one date still to be decided – the game against Man City that now won’t be happening next weekend.

In full: Burnley (a), Brighton (h), Chelsea (a), Norwich (h), City (h), Liverpool (a).

“Hard,” says Bruno Lage, when asked what sort of game he’s expecting. “Newcastle is a hard team to play against, especially since January, new manager, new players. I watched their last two games and they were very good.”

And yes, he is including the 5-1 defeat at Spurs. “Don’t care about the result, [I just care] about the performance.”

An email! From the tireless Peter Oh. “Your ‘two for Wolves too’ post gave me a strange flashback,” he says, “to the 1987 film Teen Wolf Too.

“Speaking of teen wolves, I see that the young whippersnapper Luke Cundle is in the visitors’ starting lineup.” He is – making, I think, his second league start, following the rip-roaring win at Spurs in February. He’s making the most of his teens, which come to an end on 26 April.

Newcastle are seven points above the bottom three. Jamie Carragher thinks they’re safe, but Eddie Howe is not so sure. “For me, there’s still a threat of relegation,” he says. “And I’m sure the players have the same mentality as I have – I’ve been trying to drum that into them. We have to finish the job, and we’ve got a tough run of fixtures at the end of the season. It’s vital that we get something tonight and change the momentum.”

Those fixtures are an interesting mix, ranging from three of the current top five to two of the bottom three. In full: Leicester (h), Palace (h), Norwich (a), Liverpool (h), Man City (a), Arsenal (h), Burnley (a).

Bruno Lage also makes two changes, leaving out Dendoncker and Podence and bringing in Luke Cundle and Hee-Chan Hwang, who scored both Wolves’ goals in the 2-1 win in the reverse fixture.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (possible 3-4-3): Sa; Boly, Coady, Kilman; Jonny, Cundle, Moutinho, Marcal; Trincao, Fabio Silva, Hwang.

Subs: Ruddy, Alt-Nouri, Mosquera, Semedo, Toti, Saiss, Campbell, Neto, Chiquinho.

Eddie Howe can’t have been too furious with the XI that lost at Spurs because he’s kept faith with nine of them. He is without Joe Willock, so he brings in Bruno Guimaraes in midfield, and he also replaces Javier Manquillo with Emil Krafth at right-back.

Newcastle (possible 4-3-3): Dubravka; Krafth, Burn, Schar, Targett; Guimaraes, Shelvey, Joelinton; Fraser, Wood, Saint-Maximin.

Subs: Darlow, Dummett, Lascelles, Manquillo, Ritchie, Murphy, Longstaff, Almiron, Gayle.

Evening everyone and welcome to the first match of a fascinating Premier League weekend. Whether it’ll be a fascinating match remains to be seen. But it’s a Friday night in Newcastle, so a lot of people will be making a lot of noise while wearing not a lot of clothes. And both these clubs have plenty to play for.

Wolves, after a wobble, are back among the contenders for the Europa This or the Europa That. In the Premier League table of the past month they stand third, trailing Spurs and Liverpool only on goal difference. And that’s despite having to manage without Raul Jimenez and Ruben Neves.

Newcastle come into this game from the other direction – the doldrums. After enjoying a big new-manager bounce under Eddie Howe, they’ve gone and lost their last three games, culminating in a 5-1 drubbing at Spurs last weekend. But all those defeats happened on the road. This is their chance to show their own fans that they haven’t wound the clocks back to last autumn.

Kick-off is at 8pm, and I’ll be back soon after 7 with the teams.